Sorry for the shouting, but it fits the topic of my post.  Sometimes I wish I could climb to the top of the highest (social media) mountain top.

I know it would be a long struggle.  Battered knuckles, lack of oxygen, bitter cold and winds.

Upon reaching the summit, I’d turn around and at the top of my voice, I’d yell..

YOU CAN’T AUTOMATE ENGAGEMENT!

Yeah, I know.  If a tree falls in a forest…  but hey, I really would if I could.

Automation is great for so many things, it’s just that in this particular instance (engaging others in social media) – it fails miserably.

So often I see people sharing links of articles they’ve found.  These “Curators” of information often fail to do one simple yet critical thing.  Just tell me why they are sharing this link!  Is this article something I should read?  Do you agree with the author or is he off base in his thinking?

When it comes to sharing on your Facebook Wall – there’s only one way to do it.  Manually.  Yes, that sounds like a lot of extra work.  It’s not.    Here’s how to manually use the LINK function to share a post.  It’s fast, it’s simple and best of all you can tell the people who see it exactly why you are sharing it in the first place.

Speaking of sharing… Want to read a great article?  My friend Brian Solis wrote a great article on what I call the “Food Pyramid of Content”.  For me I realized I am a content Creator most of the time, Curator some of the time, and Consumer even less of the time.

NOTE: Yes, that’s me on the right, summit of the highest peak in the lower 48.  For 6 days we attempted to climb the east face, ran out of time and finally had to take the “boy scout” trail to make it to the top.  Despite the smile in the photo, I had a severe case of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema at the time that ended my climbing career (and almost my life!).